1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to food service carts and, more particularly, to an improved door hinge structure for a pass through design.
2. Background Art
Stainless steel, insulated food service carts are commonly used by caterers in banquet settings. Among their numerous other uses, the carts are used for food delivery in hospital hallways.
One of the most versatile of cart constructions is the pass through design mobilized by a rolling carriage. Hinged doors are provided to gain access to the tray storage area from opposite sides of the cart. Within the cart, vertically space guide rails accept conventional food trays. The trays are slidingly admitted into and withdrawn from the storage area along the rails.
The pass through design is advantageous from the standpoint of loading and is particularly adaptable to the hospital environment, where in the trays can be removed to simultaneously service rooms on both sides of a hallway.
Heretofore, the pass through design has had one glaring drawback. When only one door is provided on each side of the cart, the doors are normally hinged at diagonally situated corners. A single door that permits access to the entire inner area of the cart is obtrusive and impractical in close quarters where the carts are most often used. Further, the doors, when fully open, protrude lengthwise beyond the ends of the cart or, when folded against the endwall, protrude beyond the opposite sidewall. In either event the doors take up substantial amounts of space.
Accordingly, two doors are often used in the open walls of the cart and are opened away from each other. While this solves the problem of an unmanageable door size, the doors on opposite sides interfere with each other and cannot be situated flushly against the end walls of the cabinet. Typically, a door on one side may be seated flushly against the endwall and the corresponding door on the opposite side pivoted against the one door. The one door encounters and limits the range of pivoting of the opposite door which juts out angularly in relationship to the endwall.
This has presented a serious problem to large volume food purveyors. As many as twenty five of the carts may be aligned closely adjacent each other in a food preparation area. The doors on adjacent carts interfere with each other and prevent close end-to-end alignment. This is particularly critical in food preparation areas where space is at a premium.
The present invention is specifically directed to overcoming one or more of the above enumerated deficiencies known in the art.